issue: Politics

Kirsty McNeill for LabourList: ‘Here’s what visiting the US taught me about why progressives win or lose’

Posted on by Max Sherrill

By Kirsty McNeill, PPC

The Labour Party has one job in 2024: delivering Keir Starmer a majority that is deep, durable, disciplined and democratic.

Deep because, to overcome our catastrophic 2019 result, we must bring over voters from every demographic and every corner of the country.

Durable because Labour has to govern with a relentless focus on deserving a second term so that we can win era-defining change, not just history-defying swings.

Disciplined because the country needs a united team that is prepared to take a long-term view.

And, most of all, democratic because we obsess about securing both ongoing enthusiasm for – and participation in – our ambitious missions.

We visited the US to understand voters’ lack of enthusiasm for Biden

It was with this in mind that a delegation, hosted by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and Progressive Britain, travelled to the United States last week.

We were in Washington DC and Virginia to learn from the Democrats and try to understand why voters weren’t more enthusiastic about a presidency of such extraordinary consequence.

Keep reading in LabourList.

 

Marshall in Politico: Where’s Biden? A bit off stage from the main attraction.

Posted on by Alex Terr

The president has kept a distance from the action, not addressing the nation on the strikes, not staying in South Carolina for his win and declining to participate in the semi-traditional Super Bowl interview this coming Sunday.

The low key approach is one the White House has adopted before, at times worrying some in his party who say it’s critical that he seize any opportunity to counter criticism that he’s too old or disengaged for the job.

“He’s got to make his case,” said Will Marshall, president of the Democratic think tank Progressive Policy Institute. “There are opportunities to take the offensive on the economy and even now on immigration.”

But the administration insists it is by design and that the concerns miss not just how much he interacts with the public but the nuances of the job. That’s especially true, they note, with respect to the airstrikes launched in response to the deaths of three American soldiers.

Read more in Politico.

Marshall for Democracy Journal: Don’t Kill Bill

Posted on by Max Sherrill

By Will Marshall

This essay is the first part of an exchange with historian Nelson Lichtenstein. Read responses 2, 3, and 4.

Is it really necessary to debate progressives again over Bill Clinton’s legacy? With a vengeful Donald Trump thrashing about our political waters like a blood-frenzied shark, it seems like a distraction.

What’s more, the left’s revisionist history of the Clinton years strikes me as a facile exercise in presentism—reinterpreting the past to score present-day ideological points. Nonetheless, the “neoliberal” legend seems to be gaining currency outside the activist and academic circles from which it sprang.

In a widely noted speech last April, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan took errant potshots at Clinton’s trade policies by way of touting the Biden Administration’s turn to industrial policy as a bold new departure in economic philosophy. Rolling out Bidenomics in July, President Biden confusingly described it as a rejection of the “trickle-down economics” that has supposedly held sway for the last 40 years—a period that includes the eight years of the Obama-Biden Administration.

Read more in Democracy Journal.

Marshall for The Hill: Beyond partisan deadlock, there’s a nation in search of ‘can do’ democracy

Posted on by Alyssa Brown

By Will Marshall

Campaign 2024 is just getting underway, but President Biden already has framed it as a fight to save American democracy. That’s true no matter who wins the Republican presidential nomination.

If it’s Donald Trump, the threat to democracy is obvious. Having already instigated one failed coup attempt, he won’t hesitate to reject the voters’ verdict if he’s defeated again in November.

And if he wins, Trump has vowed to sic the Justice Department on his political enemies and pardon the Jan. 6 rioters, defining treason down for future insurrectionists.

Even a Biden victory, though, would only be a reprieve from our deeper dilemma: Public confidence in democracy is cratering.

Read more in The Hill.

Marshall for The Hill: To win back the working class, Democrats must adjust their aim

Posted on by Max Sherrill

By Will Marshall

It’s been a dreary political winter for President Joe Biden. He’s buried under an avalanche of adverse polls showing perilously low public approval ratings as well as scant enthusiasm even among loyal Democratic voters.

The blizzard of bad news, however, doesn’t mean Biden will lose his job next November. That’s especially true if his opponent is the rabidly divisive Donald Trump, who is kryptonite to American democracy.

But the president’s consistently poor job performance numbers and the fact that he’s trailing Trump in many polls reflects a general Democratic failure to consolidate and expand the anti-Trump majority Biden assembled in 2020.

Over the past three years, Democrats have made little headway on their top strategic imperative: winning back working Americans. On the contrary, Trump has expanded his already enormous margins among white working-class voters even as Democratic support among Black and Hispanic non-college voters continues to erode.

Keep reading in The Hill.

Ainsley for Financial Times: The Bidenomics backlash holds lessons for UK’s Labour party

Posted on by Max Sherrill

By Claire Ainsley

As the Labour party looks increasingly likely to form the next UK government, it would do well to heed the warnings as well as the successes of the Biden administration’s investment programme unfolding in America.

Undoubtedly ambitious, the programme can reasonably claim to have contributed to the relatively strong growth and jobs rate in the US — hence Labour leader Keir Starmer’s desire to set out an economic plan that follows in its wake. Wages are up in America and inflation is coming down. With less than a year until the election, the US administration should have cause for optimism.

But the polling for President Joe Biden is dire, with the latest surveys placing him behind former president Donald Trump in key swing states that will determine the outcome of the overall contest. There are loud murmurings about a Democrat challenger to be the “next generation” figure. The party’s problems don’t start and end with a judgment on Biden, however. Their economic policies — much heralded by the centre-left worldwide, not just in the UK — are just not landing with the voters the Democrats need. Not yet, anyway.

Read more in The Financial Times.

Ainsley for The New Statesman: Labour is breaking with a failed economic consensus

Posted on by Max Sherrill

By Claire Ainsley

The furore over Keir Starmer citing Margaret Thatcher as one of the defining prime ministers of the 20th century has somewhat obscured the question of the “meaningful change” a Labour government would deliver. The purpose of referencing prime ministers who delivered transformative change – whether we agree or disagree with their means and ends – is surely to position the next Labour government in the tradition of great reforming administrations. Ultimately, history will be the judge, but as we look towards a possible Labour government for the first time in 14 years, what meaningful change is the party arguing for?

The scale of the challenge facing Labour is daunting. Only this week, the Resolution Foundation’s Economy 2030 inquiry powerfully demonstrated that the British economy faces continued relative decline unless we urgently correct our course. Some of our malaise dates from the post-financial crisis era and the political and policy choices made in its aftermath, most notably austerity and a botched Brexit. But, depressingly, much of it is attributable to long-running structural weaknesses in the UK economy which predate the 2008 financial crisis, such as the lowest investment in the G7 over the past 40 years and high inequality between people and places.

The consequence of all this is that our middle and lower earners are far worse off than their counterparts in similar-sized economies. As the Resolution Foundation charted, typical households in Britain are 9 per cent poorer than their French equivalents, while low-income families are 27 per cent poorer.

Read more in The New Statesman.

Can Democrats Win Back America’s Working Class? New PPI/YouGov Poll Sheds Light on Key Challenges

Posted on by Max Sherrill

Washington, D.C. — Working Americans believe the last 40 years have not been kind to them. When surveyed in a new poll, a majority of working-class voters believe they are worse off. When asked which President from the past 30 years has done the most for average working families, voters choose Donald Trump by a wide margin (44% to Biden’s 12%). While the result is mainly driven by partisan divides, 51% of independents chose Trump.

Working-class voters are a crucial demographic in competitive districts across the country and Democrats must make further inroads with working-class voters in order to build on recent election victories and assemble a winning coalition for 2024.

Today, the Progressive Policy Institute’s (PPI) Project on Center-Left Renewal released a new poll commissioned by YouGov to help Democrats understand and frame more effective appeals to working-class voters. PPI President Will Marshall provides a summary and analysis of the results in the report “Winning Back Working America: A PPI/YouGov Survey of Working Class Attitudes.”

“In the last century, we’ve seen a populist revolt against dominant political parties rooted in working-class voters’ discontent with sweeping economic and cultural changes. Working Americans believe the last 40 years have been hard for them and do not believe that either party will handle the issues they care most about. Ahead of 2024, Democrats must reconnect with their historical working-class base,” said Will Marshall. “The recent PPI/YouGov poll on working-class Americans can give Democrats a blueprint for winning back working America and offering pragmatic, common-sense solutions to our country’s biggest problems.”

The poll contains two parts: a national survey of 860 non-college voters and oversamples of working-class opinions in seven 2024 presidential or Senate battleground states: Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. The poll surveyed registered voters without a four-year degree (voters with a two-year degree, high school diploma, or less). Results from swing state polls are available upon request.

Key findings from the national poll:

•  Two-thirds of voters say they are worse off and only 21% believe their lives have improved. White non-college voters are especially likely to say things have gotten worse (70%). Pessimism is even higher in many swing states: Arizona (74%), Michigan (74%), and Pennsylvania (75%).

• When presented with a list of reasons why life is harder today, respondents put illegal immigration and automation at the top.

•  When it comes to the economy, voters polled overwhelmingly (69%) name the high cost of living as their top worry. In distant but still significant second place (11%) is the concern that government deficits and debt are too high.

•  When asked why prices have risen so much, 55% of working-class voters picked “government went overboard with stimulus spending, overheating the economy” over the impact of the COVID recession and supply chain bottlenecks as the economy recovered. More than half of voters in each of the swing states agreed.

•  When asked where they think their children will find the best jobs and careers, most voters (44%) chose the communications/digital economy over manufacturing (13%).

•  When asked about student loan forgiveness, 56% of voters (including 59% of Independents) say “paying off this debt is not fair to the majority of Americans who don’t get college degrees…” Democrats were outliers, with only 28% calling loan forgiveness unfair.

•  What the voters do support, enthusiastically and across political fault lines, is “more public investment in apprenticeships and career pathways to help non-college workers acquire better skills” (74%) as well as “affordable, short-term training programs that combine work and learning.”

•  Overall, 41% of voters say climate change is an “existential” problem that demands action, while 34% expressed skepticism. 42% think clean energy incentives will create good jobs and boost the economy, while 37% fear they will raise energy bills and the costs of goods.

•  When asked about education and whom public schools served most, they said political activists (31%), unions (30%) and students (29%), with only 10% choosing parents.

•  When asked on views of the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against Amazon and whether or not voters support ending Amazon Prime’s two-day prime shipping, 47% of voters strongly oppose.

•  And when asked about protecting consumer’s personal data, 80% prefer the government to pass a privacy and data security bill and ensure all companies abide by these regulations instead of the 20% of voters who think the government should break up big tech companies.

Read the full poll and analysis here.

In October, PPI released the companion poll in a report from Claire Ainsley, Director of the Center-Left Renewal Project at PPI, titled “Roadmap to Hope: How to Bring Back Hope to Working-Class Voters in an Age of Insecurity” on opinions of the working class in the U.K.

 

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org. Find an expert at PPI and follow us on Twitter.

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Media Contact: Amelia Fox – afox@ppionline.org

Winning Back Working America: A PPI/YouGov Survey of Working-Class Attitudes

Posted on by Alyssa Brown
SUMMARY AND HIGHLIGHTS BY WILL MARSHALL

INTRODUCTION

This century has witnessed a populist revolt against long-dominant political parties across the democratic world. It’s rooted in working-class discontent with sweeping economic and cultural changes that have bred a profound sense of social dislocation and insecurity.

This phenomenon challenges governing parties of the left and right. But it poses a special test to the U.S. Democrats and other center-left and progressive parties that have traditionally championed the economic prospects and moral outlook of traditional working people.

The new populists offer working-class voters a refuge in old ideas: ethnic nationalism, nativism and protectionism. Conservative parties have tried to compete by co-opting these themes. Liberal and progressive parties have deplored the populists’ illiberal and antidemocratic tendencies while failing to grasp their valid concerns and fears of not being heard.

The Progressive Policy Institute believes America and other liberal democracies need a reinvigorated center-left to turn back the tide of reactionary nationalism that has swept much of the world over the past decade. In January 2023, we launched a new Center-Left Renewal Project headed by Claire Ainsley, formerly a top policy advisor to UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer.

As it happens, both Labour and the Democrats face crucial national elections next year. While allowing for significant differences in political structure and culture, reconnecting with their historical working-class base is an electoral and moral imperative for both parties.

To help them frame more effective appeals to working-class voters (broadly defined as those without four-year college degrees) the Project commissioned from YouGov public opinion surveys in the United Kingdom and the United States. The former is found in Claire Ainsley’s report, Roadmap to Hope, which was released in October at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.

This U.S.-focused companion report, Winning Back Working America, has two parts: a national survey of 860 non-college voters and oversamples of working-class opinion in seven 2024 presidential or Senate battleground states: Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada. The interviews were conducted between Oct. 17 and Nov. 6.

Here are some of the key findings of our poll, followed by the national sample. The state oversamples and crosstabs are available on request.

READ THE POLL RESULTS.

 

Another Cycle, Another Win for Reproductive Rights

Posted on by Max Sherrill

Yesterday marked yet another election cycle in which voters rejected Republicans’ ongoing attempt to limit abortions and restrict reproductive care. Republicans continue to lose ground on this issue, even on their own red state turf. Every time abortion rights are put to a popular vote, they win and right-wing abolitionists lose.

The truth is that Americans are supporting abortion access at higher percentages than before the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. A 59% majority say they still oppose the justices’ decision. The results this cycle again confirmed broad public support for abortion access across the country and misgivings about the Supreme Court’s disruptive decision:

• Ohio voters came out in droves to enshrine abortion protections into their state constitution, preventing a dangerous six-week abortion ban (including no exceptions for rape or incest) from going back into effect after being blocked by the courts for over a year. The amendment to the state’s constitution got 56.6% of the vote.

• Virginia voters didn’t buy the Republicans messaging on a 15-week abortion ban as a “moderate” and “reasonable compromise” and voted to keep the Democratic majority in the Senate and flip the House, preventing Governor Youngkin from implementing the ban with a Republican majority. This also leaves Virginia as the southernmost state without a post-Roe change to abortion access.

• Despite the race not determining the majority in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, voters showed strong support for the pro-choice Democrat, ensuring the Court will continue to protect reproductive access in the state.

• Finally, in deep-red Kentucky, voters also backed Democratic candidates for both Governor and Attorney General who promised to support abortion rights.

This all comes at the heels of last year, where ballot measures in six states, the most on record for a single year, resulted in wins for abortion rights, including in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont. Next year, 11 more states could also face ballot measures related to abortion access, including in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.

If the results of these races have been any indication of what messaging voters resonate with and the issues that matter most to them, it’s abundantly clear that ensuring abortion access remains a top concern. Voters see right through the thin veil of the Republican abortion agenda and clearly see their attacks on Democracy and on reproductive rights: They will go to any length to interfere in their ability to decide how and when to plan for their families.

At a time when maternal and infant mortality is skyrocketing in mostly red states, and pregnant women are being forced to sit in hospital parking lots until they are sepsis to receive care because of draconian abortion restrictions in red states, Americans’ health fares far worse at the helm of Republican leadership. Voters continue to see and are experiencing the harmful effects of the latest abortion restrictions post-Roe and show up time and again to refute the radical, toxic Republican abortion and reproductive health agenda.

Last night’s results demonstrate again that the majority of American voters are with the Democrats on reproductive rights. The party should center the abortion issue in next year’s national elections as well as state legislative contests. Democrats have an opportunity to connect with independent and moderate Republican voters who don’t want to see their personal liberties stripped away.

Marshall for the Hill: It’s official: House Republicans put Trump first, not America

Posted on by Max Sherrill

By Will Marshall

By installing Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), an ardent 2020 election denier, as Speaker without a single dissenting vote, House Republicans have erased any doubts about where their true loyalties lie.

Forget about “America First.” House Republicans have put Donald Trump first, abjectly surrendering to his seditious campaign to undermine Americans’ confidence in their democratic institutions.

That’s sparked the retirement of Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who warned his colleagues that Trump’s lies and lawlessness will lead Republicans to defeat again in next year’s presidential contest.

Unlike members of the Freedom Caucus, the new Speaker ostensibly is a nice guy. A change in tone is welcome, but it won’t mean much so long as GOP leaders remain mesmerized by Trump, either because they adore him or are terrified that he’ll urge his followers to turn them out of office.

Read more in The Hill

PPI Statement on Hamas Terrorism

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

Today, Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) released the following statement in response to this weekend’s heinous attack on Israel and the Israeli people.

“The more we learn about Hamas’s barbaric slaughter of civilians in Israel, the more civilized people everywhere should resolve to reject the sickening moral equivocations voiced by apologists for Palestinian terrorists. No cause on earth justifies the orgy of sadism, rape, and mass murder we have just witnessed. And let us have an end to evasive euphemisms like ‘militant’ — the perpetrators of this crime against humanity are terrorists and should be so named and treated.

“We are grateful to President Biden for forcefully condemning Hamas’s depraved violence and pledging America’s steadfast support for the Israeli people at this terrible moment. The contrast between Biden’s moral clarity and unifying leadership and Donald Trump’s dishonest attempts to divide our country by politicizing the tragedy in Israel could not be more telling.

“Israeli forces are now trying to rescue hostages, bring terrorists to justice, and degrade Hamas’s ability to launch further outrages. This is a monumental task made more difficult by Hamas’s cynical tactic of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, which is yet another war crime. It’s imperative that Israeli forces proceed both resolutely and carefully, demonstrating the humanity and respect for innocent lives that their terrorist attackers lack. We see no military justification for depriving Gaza residents of food and fuel.

“The Progressive Policy Institute stands with Israel, and endorses the bipartisan congressional resolution, signed by over 400 Members of Congress, supporting Israel and outrightly condemning the terrorist attacks launched by Hamas against Israeli civilians.

“Standing with Israel against terrorism in no way implies support for Israeli government policies. Indeed, we are concerned by the authoritarian drift of recent Israeli politics. But there will be ample time and occasion to debate these matters once the immediate crisis has passed.”

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C., with offices in Brussels, Berlin and the United Kingdom. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.

Follow the Progressive Policy Institute.

Find an expert at PPI.

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Media Contact: Amelia Fox, afox@ppionline.org

Working-class voters abandon Sunak’s Conservatives ahead of next election

Posted on by Alyssa Brown

The Conservative Party is haemorrhaging working-class votes across the country under Rishi Sunak’s leadership, particularly those of working age, with Keir Starmer’s Labour Party on course to reverse its historic decline with working-class voters.

New research released by the Progressive Policy Institute on the eve of the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool shows that the voters that were so crucial to the Conservatives’ majority at the 2019 general election are abandoning the party. Only 44% of working-class voters who voted Conservative in 2019 say they will vote for them next time. 74% of all those polled describe the Conservatives as not close to working-class people, strongly associating them with wealthy individuals and big business.

Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, Labour is on course to turn around its historic decline amongst working-class voters – but Labour’s lead is much narrower with working-class voters than the wider electorate, with many yet to make up their minds on who to vote for. The research reveals that those who are feeling more optimistic about the year ahead are more likely to vote Conservative; however, there are far fewer of them than those who are pessimistic about the year ahead. Overall, working-class Britons believe almost everything is going to get worse, including all of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledges: the rate of inflation, the cost of living, NHS waiting lists, climate change, their personal financial situation, the number of people arriving in small boats, the level of national debt, and the country’s financial situation.

In the report, ‘Roadmap to Hope: how to bring hope back to working-class voters in an age of insecurity’, project director and former policy director to Keir Starmer, Claire Ainsley, argues that Labour must redouble its efforts to reach disaffected working-class voters as it eyes a general election campaign, with concrete plans to ‘remake the deal’ for working people.

The report includes exclusive comparative analysis of the electoral coalitions of centre-left parties around the world by Professor Oliver Heath for PPI, which shows that far from the base of social democratic parties moving uniformly to middle-upper earners, those on low to middle incomes still form the social base for winning centre-left parties. The UK Labour Party has a particular challenge to attract older voters, compared to its centre-left contemporary parties around the world.

Overall economic concerns and policies to address them, such as controlling energy bills and inflation, are much more important to working-class voters than cultural issues that have gained disproportionate media attention. However, tackling illegal immigration and crime are highly salient for working-class voters. 59% tended to agree that you get less in return for working hard than you did a decade ago, compared to 12% who said you get more in return.

‘Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, Labour is on course to win over working-class voters who have been so failed by the Conservatives. They are feeling pretty pessimistic about the future, so the task for Labour is to inspire hope and belief that the deal can be re-made whereby if you work hard, you get on. That rests on offering concrete plans to improve people’s security and their prospects, and restore a sense of basic fairness to the economy and society’, said Claire Ainsley, Director of PPI’s Centre-Left Renewal Project.

The report includes PPI’s practical ideas to ‘re-make the deal’ for working people:

1.  Relentless focus on raising wages for those on low to middle incomes.
2. Stabilise supply and costs of essential goods and services.
3. Open up housing investment to the next generation.
4. Reform school education to become the driver of progress.
5. Replace ‘one rule for them’ with ‘same rules apply’.

More working-class voters said the government is not doing or spending enough to try and reduce carbon emissions (34%), compared to those saying they are doing too much (25%), or getting the balance about right (16%), showing the awareness of climate action across all social groups. That said, they have a clear view when it comes to who pays: 53% agreed that it is important to combat climate change but ‘people like me should not be paying the cost of policies to reduce global carbon emissions’, whilst 16% said they would be prepared to pay some costs and 19% said they do not believe climate action is necessary.

 

PPI’s new Project on Centre-Left Renewal resumes our long-running conversation with centre-left parties in Europe and around the world. Its purpose is to exchange ideas, strategies and tactics for making centre-left parties more competitive and improve their governing performance.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C., with offices in Brussels, Berlin and the United Kingdom. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.

Follow the Progressive Policy Institute.

Find an expert at PPI.

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Media Contact: Amelia Fox, afox@ppionline.org

Roadmap to Hope: How to bring back hope to working-class voters in an age of insecurity

Posted on by Alyssa Brown

INTRODUCTION

For many people, the economic and political turbulence of these past few years have made it a whole lot harder to achieve their hopes and dreams.

Every time inflation rises or mortgage costs escalate, the choices available get much more limited. Whether it’s buying a new home, retraining for a job you really want, or booking the holiday you’ve worked so hard for. The deal whereby if you work hard and do the right thing, you can achieve what you set out to, seems broken through a combination of failing markets, creaking public services, and politics unable to rise to the challenges of our times. This sense of insecurity – not knowing what the future holds – now seems semi-permanent.

This deeper-rooted belief that our governments don’t work in the interests of ordinary people has fuelled the rise of right-wing populism in many of our nations, which despite some recent success of centre-left parties, continues to gain ground. Even where right-wing populists remain at the margins, their effect on mainstream politics and society is being felt. And where the centre-left has won power, it is proving difficult to achieve more durable electoral majorities amongst a fragmented electorate, under siege from the scare tactics of the right.

The only way out of this is for the political centre-left to present and deliver a more unifying, compelling, and credible alternative to the extremities and their mainstream copyists, rooted in the hopes and dreams of ordinary people.

In January 2023, the Progressive Policy Institute launched a new project on the political renewal of the global centre-left. This report shares comparative analysis of centre-left voters, and how electoral strategies can build more sustainable coalitions.

The politics of a winning centre-left isn’t the triumph of reassurance over hope; it is reassurance so that people can realise their hopes and dreams again. The centre-left needs to reclaim hope and aspiration as well as offering security and reassurance, and in so doing, bring hope back to the many millions who deserve to have their faith restored.

Voters in the UK and beyond are looking again at what centre-left parties have to offer. But progress will only turn into lasting success if once in government, our parties are judged by voters to have met their economic, social and cultural needs and interests. This report, and PPI’s work, is in service of that goal.

Read the full report.

Marshall for The Hill: For victory in 2024, Democrats must win back the working class

Posted on by Alyssa Brown

By Will Marshall

A spate of recent polls showing President Biden either tied with or falling behind Donald Trump has some Democrats in a swivet. How could Biden be trailing a fabulist he’s already beaten, who’s facing 91 felony charges, and whose business empire may be crumbling around him?

It’s a good question. Today’s polls aren’t predictive of an election that’s more than a year out. But they are indicative of how little headway the president and his party have made since 2020 on their central political challenge: enlarging their party by winning back working class voters.

Luckily for them, a lifetime of deceit continues to catch up with Trump. A New York Supreme Court justice has ruled that his real estate companies defrauded banks and insurance companies by ludicrously overstating their properties’ value. The judge yanked their licenses to do business in New York and said he’d appoint a receiver to dismantle them.

Read more in The Hill.

Ainsley for The Guardian: A centrist Labour is back. But this time it cannot take the working class for granted

Posted on by Alyssa Brown

By Claire Ainsley

Keir Starmer promised he would turn the Labour party around and give it back to the British people. Three years on from becoming leader, he can credibly claim to have done just that. Research released today by YouGov for WPI Strategy shows that Starmer’s Labour is closer to the public on the issues that matter most to them – and voters perceive the Conservatives and Rishi Sunak as being well to the political right of the British people.

Overall, voters characterised themselves as 4.6 out of 10 on a scale where 0 was leftwing and 10 was rightwing. They placed Keir Starmer as 3.9 on the same scale, Sunak on 7.3, and their parties not far behind with Labour on 3.3 and the Conservatives on 7.6.

Elections are fought and won in the centre ground of British politics. For an often quoted iron law of politics, it’s surprising how frequently it is forgotten by parties that dream of voters moving to them, rather than the parties themselves moving closer to voters.

The Labour party is as guilty as anyone of indulging in this myth. It has only been in power for 30 of its 120 years in existence, with more of its time spent unable to do anything for the people it was formed to represent. Yet in 2023, likely the year before a general election, it is the Conservatives who find themselves adrift from voters. YouGov’s research shows Labour beating the Conservatives in every age category under 65, and in every region and nation. More than half say they will definitely not vote Conservative next time.

Read more in The Guardian.